A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 62. The Centre (The Web Planet Conclusion)

In wrapping up this too-long serial, we finally get to meet the Animus, and it's...a spaghetti-monster perched over a high-intensity flashlight.

Much like the Optera, the Animus' obvious artifice--you can see the dome that gives the mass of felt ribbons its shape--takes away from the story, and no amount of bright lights flashing in our cast's faces can hide how shabby our ultimate villain looks.  Even with the amount of time focusing on getting Ian to the Animus to put paid to its machinations and Hartnell and O'Brien squirming about as if 'possessed,' I can't take this seriously as a Big Bad.  Thankfully, this thingie is put out of business pretty quickly....

...or it would be a thankful thing if we didn't get such an extended 'saying goodbye' sequence where it seems more attention is spent on the various alien races than on our heroes.  Look, I understand the design staff worked hard on coming up with all these costumes meant to represent non-humanoid lifeforms and they want us to appreciate all that work, but the impact is decidedly lessened due to the length of our exposure to it.

This serial as a whole should have been shorter, and there are scenes that could've been cut whole to aid with its plodding pace.  Spending extra time watching the Optera frolicking under the smeary moon does not help any.  I wonder if there is an alternate universe where this serial, rather than the next one (The Crusade), that's missing literally half its episodes.

I respect what was intended.  I just am glad it's finally over.